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Get your free copy03 May 2017, 07:14 AM
- Dan Bliss, retail manager for Paxton & Whitfield’s flagship Jermyn Street shop, gives us her low-down on the essentials of cutting cheese
Do:
● Cut cheese to provide customers with as much of the cheese experience as possible (i.e. from the rind through to the centre of the cheese). Balance the rind to cheese ratio, you mustn’t end up with pieces where rind predominates.
● Avoid touching cut cheese with bare hands (use waxed paper or, if a hard cheese, only touch the rind) and only place cheeses on a clean surface, for instance place on waxed paper and not directly onto the scales.
● Ensure all equipment in contact with cheese is clean.
● Ensure your hands are clean and wash them frequently. Also, wash them if you’ve been handling other food products, like cured meats. This helps to stop any cross contamination.
● Use the right tool to cut the cheese. For example, a cheese wire for hard cheese and a cheese knife for washed rind or softer cheeses.
Don’t:
● Use the wrong knife
● Use a blunt knife to cut cheese
● Use the same knife to cut different styles of cheese, i.e. cutting blue cheese and then using the same knife to cut Cheddar. This is wrong and causes cross contamination.
● Cut on an unstable surface. There are so many health and safety issues in doing this.
● Forget to wrap the cut cheese well. If you’ve trained the team to cut cheese you should also train them in how to wrap cheese well in waxed paper for customers to take home and when putting the cheese back on display.
